Pebble Cast Upon Water: Concentric Prologue
by JenniferJF
Summary: Sometimes, their firsts happened together. Also a Prologue to my Concentric. Edited version to maintain continuity with DVD minisodes.
1. Present

_A/N: I've edited this ever so slightly so it followed the chronology of the minisodes on the Series 6 DVDs So if you've seen those, you can start here. If you haven't, read Chapter One first as that's my original version._

_-o-o-o-o-o-o-_

River's second night in Stormcage, the TARDIS again materialized in the corridor outside her cell. The Doctor popped out the door and sauntered up to her cell.

"Hullo. Missed me?" he asked, grinning broadly.

She returned his smile. "Always." Then, as he soniced the lock, she asked, "So, where we off to today?"

"It's a surprise," he said, opening the door and pocketing his screwdriver with a flourish.

"Good. I love surprises."

"Me too," he laughed, and took her hand. "Now, c'mon."

Having learned her lesson the last time, River brought out her diary as the Doctor set the TARDIS into flight. "So... shall we?" she asked, holding it up for him to see.

"Not this time."

"But-"

"I'm on my honeymoon," he explained, laughing as he pushed home the final lever. "And I'm fairly certain...you are too."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"You could have warned me," she observed, lazily tracing patterns with her fingertips on his bare chest.

"About what?" he asked, voice heavy with sleep.

"That I'd be running into a younger you. _First_."

"Ahhh... That. Yes...well...I didn't actually have a chance last time I saw you, if you'll recall. And even if I had..."

"Spoilers?" she suggested.

He chuckled. "Yes. Because, you know, it _did_ happen. Though I will admit, once I'd finally figured the whole thing out, your sudden change of attitude did suddenly make a lot more sense."

"What do you mean?" she asked, propping herself up on an elbow to look him in the face. She knew him well enough to know that, if he hadn't meant to speak of it, he wouldn't have brought it up.

"Well, all those... all that time, my visiting you backwards in Stormcage, and you never once... You know..." His voice trailed off.

She couldn't help but laugh. Who knew anyone could blush that far down? "It does feel a bit like cheating, doesn't it?

"He's still _me_, you know."

"Yes... but..." She flailed a hand over his chest, searching for the right word.

He caught her hand in his. "I do know what you mean. And I think now we both know why you did... will... do it. Make me wait, that is. And at least our first time was, well... _our_ first time."

"If I'd known, though, I wouldn't have... I'd have waited until _now_."

He chuckled. "Could you have? If I recall..."

"I wasn't that bad." He arched an eyebrow at her, and she laughed. "Okay. Maybe I was. A bit. But it was quite a long wait."

"The trial wasn't that long."

"I wasn't just talking about the trial. Do you have any idea what the sight of you in an evening jacket does to me?" When he didn't respond after a moment, she raised herself up on one elbow to look at him. The smile tugging at his lips confirmed her suspicion. "You do, don't you?"

He laughed again. "Maybe. A bit."

"That's cheating," she protested.

"Yes, it is," he agreed without a trace of apology. "Still, it all worked out in the end. Or the beginning. Depending on your point of view. Because, believe me, it had to happen that way."

"Why?"

His eyes flashed with sudden humor, a grin slashed across his face, and she knew what he was about to say before he'd even opened his mouth. "Spoilers." Then, laughing, he added, "But this time, I promise, you won't have long to wait."


	2. Future

The first hint she had was five weeks after she'd returned from her honeymoon. The guard was bringing her breakfast when, suddenly, the smell of porridge hit her like a brick. Luckily, her wastebasket sat nearby. And she didn't have to clean it up afterwards herself.

By the time the Doctor – her Doctor – had arrived that evening, she'd felt fine for hours and didn't even think to mention it. After all, it was probably just a reaction to a bit of bad food. Stormcage wasn't known for its fine cuisine.

The next day, though, it was the tomato soup at lunch that did her in. "Doctor Song?" the guard asked, returning with her cleaned wastebasket.

She was lying on her narrow cot, her stomach still rolling threateningly. "Yes?"

"I need to bring you to the infirmary."

As she was in no condition to argue, she just nodded, got slowly to her feet, and followed the guard from the cell.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Under the circumstances, she wasn't really surprised. Well, surprised beyond the simple fact it was even possible. Which she'd rather doubted given the differences in their basic biology. Apparently, though, given her mutated DNA, they were close enough.

She _was_surprised, however, when the Doctor showed up a few hours later and announced, without preamble, "You're pregnant." She was even more surprised later when she realized he wasn't _her_ Doctor. Though, thinking about it, maybe she really ought not to have been.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Her Doctor did arrive later that afternoon, materializing silently and invisibly in a corner of her cell. He looked up from the console as she entered the TARDIS. "Hullo."

She tried to smile, but was too tired to give the expression real warmth. "Hello, sweetie."

"You okay?" he asked as she joined him up at the controls.

She nodded. "Yeah."

He cocked his head to one side, examining her closely, "No," he decided after a minute. Reaching out, he pulled her to him. "But you will be, River. Eventually. I promise." His words whispered through her hair as his hand stroked her back; she relaxed against his chest.

"You already know – ? " she began, but he cut her off.

"Spoilers," he warned. Then he continued after a pause, "Though I can tell you it was necessary... _absolutely_ necessary... for things to work out this way. If that helps."

She pulled back a little to look up into his face as she asked, "Can you tell me why?"

"Not completely. But I can tell you that it's only because I knew we'd already had a child that I thought, before Utah, that our time together was through. That you'd believed I was dead all this time, deceived like everyone else. Which means it wouldn't have been there on that tower that I finally realized you'd only been playing a murderer; that you'd known I was alive the whole time. Which is when I did the only thing possible, dearest...I married you." He paused, letting her see his love, and his awe at the depth of her love, clear across his features. Shining in his eyes. "So, you see, without _that_, everything would have changed. As for the rest... Well..."

This time, her smile was quick and sure as she answered, "Spoilers?"

He returned her grin. "Yeah."

"I do have one more question," she continued, attempting to hold a straight face.

"Yes?"

"Does it ever bother you, sweetie, that you'll never really know whose child it is?" She couldn't help but laugh at his momentary confusion. "Yours...? Or _his_?"

It wasn't until much, much later though, as she stood over a cot with their daughter's name carved into it and _watched_ him fall in love with her, that River finally really understood the rest. And knew how right he'd been.


	3. Past

_A/N: Superseded, really, by the minisodes on the Series 6 DVDs, but I've included it here for those who haven't seen it. If you have, start at Chapter One instead and skip this chapter entirely._

_-o-o-o-o-o-o-_

Her trial had lasted exactly three months and two days; she absolutely refused to work out what percentage of her overall sentence that came out to. The results were certain to be discouraging, to say the least.

Ending up in Stormcage wouldn't have been as bad, of course, if she had known when she was going to see _him_ again. Under the circumstances, he couldn't exactly waltz into the prison and demand a conjugal visit. Or, for that matter, any kind of visit at all. It might tend to suggest he wasn't quite as deceased as he wanted everyone to believe. And, despite the massive subterfuge he was pulling over on the universe...with her help, of course, but still...he did remain a bit of a goody-two-shoes. To put it mildly. And she had a terrible feeling that meant he might consider breaking out murderers, even if only temporarily, and even one who hadn't technically committed the crime she'd been convicted of, to be out of the question.

Which meant she might be in for a very, very long wait.

Although she had managed to smuggle in a few tubes of hallucinogenic lipstick. So if he wasn't able or willing to come to her...

The wheezing grinding shriek of ancient engines filled the corridor, interrupting her thoughts. _Answering_ her thoughts.

The TARDIS. _His_ TARDIS.

She was at the bars before they'd fully materialized, but it wasn't until he'd stepped out of the doors and walked towards her, hands thrust casually into his pockets and a grin plastered on his face, that she realized just how much she'd really missed him. How much she'd needed to see him.

"Hello, sweetie." She was quite possibly beaming idiotically; she didn't really care.

He returned her smile. "Hullo." Then, brandishing his sonic screwdriver, he unlocked her cell as easily as if he'd done it a million times. "Lets..."

She was in his arms even before the door was fully open. Long minutes later, breaking off from the kiss, she finally answered, laughing breathlessly, "Yes... lets..."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Quite a long time later, hunger and thirst having eventually, and shockingly unromantically, forced them to leave the bedroom, they sat together at the TARDIS kitchen table, wearing nothing but dressing gowns, having tea. "So, shall we?" the Doctor asked, reaching into the pocket of his gown and pulling out a battered blue leather book which, while not an exact match for her diary, was fairly close.

"Shall we what?" she asked.

He waggled the book in front of her, "Do diaries?"

"Do... What?"

He paused in mid-waggle. "Diaries?" he repeated. And then, when she still didn't answer, he continued, his voice suddenly serious. "River... You do know what I'm talking about, right?"

She shook her head.

"Oh. Oh. God... That explains..."

Something in his tone was starting to scare her. "Doctor?"

He stared at the diary in his hand and took a deep breath before looking back at her. "River... have we compared diaries before?"

She shook her head again. "No."

He nodded slowly and then asked, "This is the first time I've visited you in Stormcage, isn't it?"

"Yes. Of course it is. Why?"

He sighed and, for just a second, looked every minute of his age. Ancient and tired in a way she'd never seen him before. "Oh... River."

"What?" Then, when he didn't answer, she asked, as gently as she could, "Please, just tell me."

He took another deep breath and looked down at the table, long fingers fiddling absently with the teacup set before him as he explained, "Because, you see...and I can't tell you how long or why...I've been traveling backwards in time relative to you while you've been in Stormcage." He glanced up at her before continuing quietly, "And if this is my first visit to you here... then it means it's also _my_ last. My last before finally finding you... wherever and whenever it is I'm going to find you."

"Oh...sweetie." Because suddenly she understood. The man sitting across the table from her, though he looked like him, wasn'ttruly_her_ Doctor. Not yet. Not completely. He was on his way to becoming – had nearly become – that man. But he wasn't him. Not quite yet. Not until finding her, or until she'd found him, in that cornfield in Leadworth. And making her fall in love with him because...

And then she_really_ understood.

"You love me," she said simply, trying to make him understand, too.

He looked up at her and smiled through eyes shining with tears. "Yes."

Her heart broke for him. All the fear he must be feeling, all the uncertainty and guilt... and how simple it would be for her to end it all. To tell him she first knew only because he'd told her. That he would get that chance to tell her, and that it would change _everything_.

Only she knew she couldn't.

Spoilers.

So, instead, she said, "I'm here."

It was close enough. And it was undeniably true. His smile widened. His eyes brightened. "Yeah, you are."

"And, you know, this box of yours does travel in time and space, so it's not like there's any place you have to rush off to any time soon." She arched an eyebrow at him.

He chuckled, and the sound bubbled through her. "True."

"So, if you're done eating...?" she began, pointing toward the empty dishes in front of them before glancing suggestively toward the door.

He didn't need to be asked twice.

It wasn't until much later that River realized, on her first trip away from Stormcage, with all of time and space at her disposal, she hadn't actually gone anywhere.


End file.
